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Facilitator: Christina Inge
Maximize your fundraising impact and efficiency by mastering the next frontier in donor communications.

AI-Powered Direct Response for Development Professionals is a comprehensive event designed to teach higher education and nonprofit fundraising staff how to strategically leverage generative AI to transform donor communications, campaign efficiency, and segmentation.

Over the course of this program, you will learn to:

• Master Prompt Engineering: Learn the anatomy of a great prompt, how to provide context effectively, and how to calibrate tone and voice to match your institutional brand.
• Apply Direct Response Applications: Use AI to structure compelling appeal letters, optimize email subject lines, build multi-email stewardship series, and implement A/B testing at scale.
• Personalize at Scale: Discover how to combine CRM data with AI content for granular personalization, tailoring narrative by giving level or affinity group, while maintaining authenticity.
• Define Your Strategy: Gain an overview of major AI tools (like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini), establish ethical guidelines for use, and create a 30-60-90 day action plan for integrating AI into your workflows.

Define the human-AI partnership and accelerate your brainstorming, first-draft writing, and segmentation strategy today.

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Facilitator: Mallory Erikson

The leadership giving space—roughly $5,000 to $250,000—requires a different way of showing up than annual giving or major gifts. And yet, most fundraisers are expected to navigate it without meaningful preparation, real practice, or support.

If you’ve ever walked out of a donor conversation thinking, “I knew what I wanted to say—why couldn’t I say it?”—this workshop is for you.

Led by Mallory Erickson, author of What the Fundraising and founder of Practivated, this interactive training is designed to close the readiness gap: the space between knowing what to do and being able to do it when it matters most. Rather than focusing on scripts or theory alone, this session centers on alignment, nervous system awareness, and realistic practice—so your skills are accessible even under pressure.

Throughout this workshop, you won’t just learn about leadership giving. You’ll practice real donor conversations using AI-powered simulations, receive personalized feedback, and build the confidence that comes from doing—not just understanding.

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Facilitator: Bob Burdenski

You’re a skilled frontline fundraiser—but sometimes the most powerful ask doesn’t come from you. It comes from a peer.

When activated effectively, volunteer fundraisers bring something institutions can’t replicate: trusted relationships, credible “join me” invitations, and personal motivation grounded in shared experience. From alumni agents and parent leaders to Giving Day ambassadors and board partners, peer voices can expand your reach and deepen engagement.

This interactive workshop with CASE Laureate Bob Burdenski explores how to recruit the right volunteers, prepare them for success, and sustain their involvement over time. Drawing on strategies from across Ivy+ institutions and beyond, we’ll examine what it takes to turn peer fundraisers into high-impact partners.

Conference Chair: Nicole Cook, Cornell University

Keynote speaker: Dianne Chipps Bailey, Bank of America

Join philanthropy executive (and former annual giving leader!) Dianne Chipps Bailey for an inspiring and data-driven exploration of our fundraising landscape. Drawing from the 2025 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy, she will share her perspective for higher education annual giving professionals. We'll gain insights to navigate today's challenging environment and identify reasons to be excited about the future.

Discover encouraging trends and practical strategies, including:

• Broad philanthropic movements and what they mean for your work
• Encouraging data on the rising generation and women's giving
• Why Millennials and Gen Z give differently—and what motivates them
• A mindset for emerging stronger from current challenges
• Why working in annual giving is important to any professional journey
• ...and more!

Dianne will show us pathways forward, so we can continue conversations feeling grounded and optimistic about the future of fundraising.

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Speaker: Jenny Benoit, University of Pennsylvania

Leadership in Annual Giving isn’t defined by a title or the size of your team—it’s about the impact you make every day. True leaders in our work step up wherever they are by modeling stewardship, fostering collaboration, and driving donor engagement.

Leading from where you are means taking ownership of the donor experience, offering creative solutions, and inspiring others through your actions. Every role in Annual Giving has the power to strengthen relationships and advance our mission. When we embrace this mindset, leadership becomes a shared responsibility—and that’s when we achieve extraordinary results together.

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Speakers: Leslie Landis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Scott Speirs, Yale University

Curious about frontline fundraising? This session offers a candid look at what the role actually involves—day-to-day work, key skills, and how it connects to annual giving. Hear directly from fundraisers about what surprised them, what’s harder than it looks, and how to make the transition.

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Panelists: Devyn Evans, Yale University; Brittany Battista Makos, Harvard University; Izzy Rodriguez, Brown University; and Samantha Abate, Brown University

Hear about these innovative projects that have elevated fundraising in higher ed.

• Devyn Evans is an Associate Director at the Yale Alumni Fund, where she leads many of the Fund’s broad digital fundraising initiatives. She will present on Yale Leads, a long-standing annual fundraising effort, and the various FY26 upgrades and enhancements that led to its most successful year yet.
• Brittany Battista Makos is the Associate Director of Development Communications, where she leads cross-functional teams. She will share the redesign of the Harvard College Fund’s volunteer resources—showing how a once text-heavy PDF became a digital-first, low-cost, and highly usable engagement tool.
• Izzy Rodriguez is the Associate Director of Digital Marketing at Brown University, where he drives digital strategy by analyzing data and various trends. He is going to walk through how his team has navigated marketing during times of crisis.
• Samantha Abate is the Assistant Director of Digital Marketing at Brown University, where she leads audience engagement strategies across channels, including SMS. She will share insights from a recent study on sender voice, highlighting how recipient engagement is impacted by sender strategy.

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Panelists: Blake Bergeron, Yale University; Holly Damm, Brown University; Logan Heggemann, University of Chicago; and Lynne Haberstock, Cornell University

This session will highlight a few best practices for designing and executing high-performing Giving Days. From partnering effectively with gift officers to activating peer-to-peer ambassadors and volunteers. Attendees will explore how thoughtful gamification and real-time engagement tactics can drive momentum across digital, social, and direct outreach channels. Designed for annual giving professionals at every stage, this session offers practical insights to help convert clicks into lasting commitments and elevate Giving Day impact year over year.

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Speakers: Iryelis Lopez Whitney, Haegan Forrest, and Erica Byrne (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Please join us for our session, which focuses on demystifying one-on-one meetings by breaking down how to confidently make the ask, effectively run fundraising conversations, and shift from simple qualification to building a strong major giving pipeline. It also explores best practices for collaborating with faculty and internal/external partners, and illustrates the volunteer-to-donor pathway through a practical case study with the annual giving team. This session will encourage active collaboration through polls, questions in the chat, and opportunities to knowledge share with colleagues.

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Panelists: Colleen Drozd, Cornell University; Bonnie Nattrass, Stanford University; Kristina Wilk, Brown University; Shannon Gamache Scurry, MIT; and Christine Seager, Yale University

Join reunion campaign officers from Brown, Stanford, Yale, and MIT for a conversation comparing Reunion Campaign models. Panelists will highlight signature program elements, share what’s driving volunteer and donor engagement, and discuss best practices and lessons learned across institutions.

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Speakers: Friya Bankwalla, Yale University, and Saint Franqui, Yale University

In today’s fast-paced organizations, clarity and alignment are essential for project success.

Join Friya Bankwalla, Assistant Director of Marketing at Yale, for a hands-on session on designing scalable project management systems using Airtable. Participants will explore how to centralize data, create tailored views, streamline workflows, and build connected interfaces that drive efficiency and team alignment. Real-world examples from complex, cross-functional initiatives demonstrate how strategic systems can transform project execution and deliver measurable results.

Then join Alexander Saint Franqui, Project Coordinator II and Expert Resource, who will dive deeper into automations, functions, and lookup fields, showing how to turn organized data into actionable outcomes. The presentation will break down key features like formula fields and lookup fields in simple, practical terms, showing how they can automate basic calculations and connect related information. Finally, it will introduce automations and demonstrate how small, repeatable tasks can be handled automatically to save time and reduce errors.

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Speaker: Kevin Field, University of Pennsylvania, and Zorela Jimenez, Princeton University

This session will explore strategies to reconnect with classmates who haven’t given recently, including targeted outreach, marketing techniques, and ways to inspire renewed support for major reunion and off-major campaign goals.

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Speakers: Claire Mumford, Harvard University, and Sue Walsh, Princeton University

Annual giving and alumni relations teams often serve the same audiences, but with different goals and timelines. Learn how Princeton University and Harvard University are aligning strategies to better engage alumni. Presenters will highlight collaborative structures, reunion partnerships, and cross-functional initiatives that move beyond transactional outreach toward a more integrated alumni experience. Attendees will gain practical ideas to strengthen coordination, improve communication, and build shared ownership of annual giving outcomes.

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Panelists: Thea Moreno, Stanford University; Jone'cia Lewis, Cornell University; Andrea Nezat, Yale University; and Sandra Livramento, Yale University

Volunteer engagement and philanthropic giving are increasingly interconnected—but not always intentionally aligned. This interactive panel explores how institutions are navigating volunteer roles and philanthropic expectations within their institutional strategies. Through moderated discussion and collective brainstorming, participants will hear practical approaches and contribute insights from their own institutions. Together, we will examine how volunteer participation and giving intersect—and how institutions can thoughtfully align the two.

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Speakers: Stephanie Watt, Cornell University, and Kaley Tomsic, Cornell University

Everyone wants better email metrics—more opens, more clicks, more conversions, fewer unsubscribes. This session shows attendees how specific email best practices measurably improve core metrics, using real examples. By learning how readers make decisions in 2–8 seconds, how their eyes follow predictable skimming patterns, and how clear writing reduces friction, email marketers can directly influence the data they report on.

Who this session is for:

• Marketers who report on email performance
• Communications teams who want to connect writing → data
• Anyone whose leadership is asking, “Why are our numbers low?”

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Speakers: H. Avery, Brown University, and Paige Lemieux, Harvard University

Student philanthropy programs are more than participation drivers—they are foundational to shaping lifelong donor behaviors. This session explores how intentional engagement, transparency, and trust-building with students can influence long-term affinity, retention, and giving as they transition into young alumni and next-generation donors.

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Conference Chair: Nicole Cook, Cornell University
Guest speaker: Corey Ryan Earle, Cornell University

Join us for the closing session of this year's Ivy+ Annual Giving conference for short remarks reflecting on our time together and on the future of fundraising.

Plus, don't miss Cornell staff member, higher education storyteller, and alumnus Corey Ryan Earle '07 in an inspiring conclusion to our event. We'll symbolically pass the torch, as conference planning responsibilities shift from Cornell to the next institution, and celebrate our shared commitment to strengthening annual giving.